Late Tuesday evening news broke that CO voters had for the first time in their state’s history recalled two sitting politicians: Senate Majority Leader John Morse of Colorado Springs, and state Senator Angela Giron of Pueblo. The impetus for the recall vote were the restrictive anti-Second Amendment laws passed by the Democrat majority. The new law was lauded by prominent progressive figures nationally but within the state the mood was very different, prompting one prominent manufacturing business to leave the state.
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Doug Smith, COO of MagPul said, “If we’re able to stay in Colorado and manufacture a product, but law-abiding citizens of the state were unable to purchase the product, customers around the state and the nation would boycott us for remaining here.” When the law passed MagPul announced that they were in fact leaving the state and held a massive going away party in Glendale with www.freecolorado.net before the law went into effect. The event offered CO citizens a last chance to get their hands on standard capacity 30 rd AR-15 mags.
Fast forward to the recall effort which played to its exciting conclusion this week. Championed by an energetic grass-roots effort, activists in the Democrat districts of Pueblo and Colorado Springs rallied voters to not only support the recall but to support their own rights. The people spoke by rejecting of two prominent anti-gun politicians. New York’s nanny Mayor Bloomberg has likely blown his top over the results, it is estimated he spent around one million dollars of his own money to fight the recall.
As we basked in the glow of victory in Colorado, another story was playing out in Missouri. The Missouri supermajority House and Senate Republicans took to the floor to vote on overturning Gov Nixon’s veto of the legislation that declared invalid any federal policies that “infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms.” Under the vetoed law, federal authorities who attempted to enforce those laws in MO could face state misdemeanor charges punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Missourians were supportive of the legislation and disappointed that it failed by a razor-thin margin in the Senate this evening, despite having a super-majority. Republicans also failed to overturn the veto of HB 253 which would have streamlined taxes and benefited middle class families and small businesses.
We have a lot of work to do with our politicians, the overwhelming groundswell of support for our rights is palpable and a uniting factor for the left and right. However, if we cannot trust our elected officials – even Republicans with super-majority power – to stand up for their constituents, then we have more soul searching to do. The answer is to always use your vote to send the message, and when we come together on the local level we make great things happen. When we blindly trust our elected officials to do the right thing without vocal encouragement we can also see the opposite. Seems some Missouri Republicans signed their walking papers today.
Be vigilant, be loud, be persuasive and when all else fails – throw them out.